Posted on 05/19/2023 12:20:01 PM PDT by Twotone
Bipartisan legislation is being introduced in the House and Senate to keep AM radio from being removed from electric vehicles amid concerns the electric motors interfere with its frequency.
The AM for Every Vehicle Act has the support of Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-N.J.), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). In the Senate, Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex).
The legislation would "direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a rule that requires automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in their vehicles without a separate or additional payment, fee, or surcharge," according to Gottheimer's office.
"The importance of AM radio during large-scale emergencies cannot be underestimated, and it has, without a doubt and without interruption, saved lives and kept our communities informed," he said.
"When the cell phone runs out, the internet gets cut off, or the television doesn’t work because of no electricity or power to your house, you can still turn on your AM radio. I’m proud to introduce the bipartisan AM for Every Vehicle Act in the House to ensure that all auto manufacturers include AM radio in their vehicles to protect public safety."
Westerman said the bill protections AM broadcast radio by "ensuring that automakers continue providing AM radio in new vehicles, cannot impose unnecessary fees or surcharges that would prevent Americans from accessing these vital services in their vehicles, and clearly indicate if any vehicle lacks AM radio capability."
Cruz called on both chambers to promptly pass the bill.
"Congress should act swiftly to pass this bill so Americans retain access to news, music, talk, and emergency alerts on the public airwaves," he said. "I’m glad to work with Senator Markey on this bipartisan legislation to ensure carmakers do not limit Texans’ access to radio in their vehicles."
The bill follows news coverage this weekend about AM being removed, and some partisan speculation the move being intended to limit conservative talk radio shows, most of which having stations on the AM band.
Gottheimer specifically called out Tesla CEO Elon Musk for removing AM radio from new Tesla vehicles.
“I would think that if Elon Musk has enough money to buy Twitter and send rockets to space, he can afford to include AM radio in his Teslas. Instead, Elon Musk and Tesla and other car manufacturers are putting public safety and emergency response at risk,” he said.
Soros just bought a bunch of Spanish speaking AM radio stations around 30. This should give you some idea of why the rats are trying to save AM.
>The ostensible reason is that electric car motors create static and interference with AM radio reception. is this true?
I was wondering the same thing. On Harleys with some aftermarket class D amplifiers, the FM band has RFI from the amp.
My first car had neither. I installed seatbelts.
HEY, EVERYBODY!!
FREE RADIOS!!!
IT’S THE LAW!! ((Or soon will be.)
(And, yes, I HAVE AM radio in my cars, as well as HF and 2-meters; so, I ain’t anti-radio, — just anti yet another unfunded mandate LAW!!
Best way to deal with it is get off AM. It’s always been the spectrum most effected by interference. Shortwave also has issues. It’s just the nature of the frequencies and wave lengths. A lot of stuff, including solar flares, ionosphere ionization, and electric motors, mess with hit. Once FM came into existence, especially once it got stereo, AM became the redheaded stepchild. That’s one of the reason talk radio landed there, don’t need fidelity that AM just doesn’t have for talk.
FM radios and business radios are usually FM based, not AM.
I can put my ham radio in an electric car with shielding and an external antenna and it’s fine. The frequency and transmission modes are not as affected as AM radio.
The shielding required adds pounds to the car. And with electric cars and their inefficient batteries, weight is critical.
Yes. An interesting idea comes to mind. If you have a device and it interferes with radio reception or transmitters, you must, according to the FCC fix the device to eliminate the interference or disable said device.
You can complain about radio interference to the FCC. HAM operators are, of course, aware of this. It is bad news when someone wittingly, or unwittingly interferes with radio reception. Amazingly enough, the FCC takes such complaints seriously.
It would be interesting for HAMs and others to submit complaints about electric cars.
Thanks.
I thought it was illegal.
It is. FCC Regs Part 15 is the relevant area of law. Just about any electrical device must comply with Part 15.
I suppose you are talking about the weight of shielding for electrical motors to reduce the interference to output levels that comply with legal requirements for same.
Couldn't be the weight involved in including AM in a radio.
As an Amateur Radio guy who goes mobile, interference from onboard computers and electrical systems in pretty much every vehicle made since 2003/2004 (based on my experience) generates noise that interferes with AM Radio, the Amateur Radio Bands and more.
It is NOT difficult to eliminate the noise from AM Radio's, mobile ham radio's, etc.. Just depends on the source of the interference and where in the radio spectrum it is.
The most "quiet" vehicle I had, meaning it generated little to no interference was my 1996 Jeep Cherokee.
The *worst* vehicle I had, meaning it generated the most interference was my 2003 GMC Envoy Denali.
My 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee generated some electrical interference on two of the amatuer radio bands in my mobile rig, took me 20 minutes to eliminate the noise.
My 2019 Ford F-150 was a complete crapshow in the noise it generated and I ended up not having my mobile ham rig in it as a result. I just didn't want to deal with it. I also no longer have that vehicle because of the cam phaser rattle issue and the pain in the ass it was to get Ford to fix it.
My 2023 Toyota Tacoma TRD OffRoad generated a little bit of alternator whine in my mobile ham radio's receive, that was easily fixed with a line filter and a few toroid chokes on the power cable going into my rig.
My experience with Hybrid vehicles (A ham radio friend's Toyota Prius) took about a day of tracking down various noise sources coming from different components in the vehicle to eliminate noise from his ham radio's receive. I'm guessing a full blown EV would be about the same experience.
Difficult? Probably. Doable? Sure, with the right experience and tools to track down the source of the noise.
There are two ways to read Part 15 and apply to both Class A and Class B devices.
The first is in regard to both classes of devices and transmitting interference.
The second is in regards to both classes of devices and receiving interference. The best way to describe this part of the regulation is this:
Look at the manual for any device governed by FCC Part 15 and what it says about the device must accept interference.
Why is that? It's because the FCC literally gave up on trying to regulate and enforce foreign manufacturers building quality devices. They don't want to hear complaints from those who buy cheaply made electronics (Chinese for example) getting interference from the local Ham Radio guy or someone else like the CB'er running a dirty radio with a crappy (and illegal) amplifier with it. That's also why the FCC mandates language in the manuals for these devices that in the case of receiving interference, it's up to the consumer to remedy it with the manufacturer and not the source of the interference.
Why do I bring this up? I've yet to see anything specific to EV's/Hybrids and the interference they cause from the FCC. Maybe I've missed it, I don't know. Still, EV's can throw a lot of interference. Witnessed that first hand.
I fully agree.
The post-17th Amendment ratification, vote-buying bill means that lawmakers probably don't have a grip on the constitutional reality that the states have never expressly constitutionally given the feds the specific power to make such a bill imo.
"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]." —United States v. Butler, 1936.
In fact, Justice Joseph Story had volunteered a list of example government powers that, although intimately (Story's word) related to commerce, are not part of Congress's Commerce Clause powers. Among those prohibited powers is the power to regulate manufactures (manufactured goods).
"The question comes to this, whether a power, exclusively for the regulation of commerce, is a power for the regulation of manufactures? The statement of such a question would seem to involve its own answer. Can a power, granted for one purpose, be transferred to another? If it can, where is the limitation in the constitution? Are not commerce and manufactures as distinct, as commerce and agriculture? If they are, how can a power to regulate one arise from a power to regulate the other? It is true, that commerce and manufactures are, or may be, intimately connected with each other. A regulation of one may injuriously or beneficially affect the other. But that is not the point in controversy. It is, whether congress has a right to regulate that, which is not committed to it, under a power, which is committed to it, simply because there is, or may be an intimate connexion between the powers. If this were admitted, the enumeration of the powers of congress would be wholly unnecessary and nugatory. Agriculture, colonies, capital, machinery, the wages of labour, the profits of stock, the rents of land, the punctual performance of contracts, and the diffusion of knowledge would all be within the scope of the power; for all of them bear an intimate relation to commerce. The result would be, that the powers of congress would embrace the widest extent of legislative functions, to the utter demolition of all constitutional boundaries between the state and national governments [emphases added]." —Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2:§§ 1073--91
"The power to regulate manufactures is no more confided to congress, than the power to interfere with the systems of education, the poor laws, or the road laws of the states [emphasis added]." —Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2, 1833.
The definition of insanity is reelecting your beloved career state and federal lawmakers and executives over and over again, expecting remedies for unconstitutional government policies every time.
They cleared the slate of their flagship KFI in Los Angeles and moved most conservatives to a smaller deadend station and/or fired them. The host line up is drastically different from what it was in the 90s early 2000s and is mostly boring wokesters or wokesterlite local hosts. Its pretty much unlistenable now but they don’t care since I guess most of their money comes from FM. Now they’re trying to move people to podcasts and most ones they shill are libtard feminist and alphabet ones. They also constantly shill ‘Pride Month’ etc.
Sorry to be a tin-foil hat killjoy, but if all hell-breaks loose, you WANT AM radio in your vehicle along with AM signals accessible.
Think mass-casualty event over a wide spread area.
As a rule, good prepping means not expecting the latest ‘tech’ to always be accessible. Also, GENERATING an AM signal is much easier if/when the time comes.
Most talk radio is on FM where I live.
CONELRAD, its heirs, successors, and assigns...
"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." ~ Putt's Law
I have AM radio in my vehicle and don’t have a problem with reception. Now if there were an electric motor in close proximity, would I have a problem?
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